SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Defending regular-season Southern Conference champion ETSU was picked to win the league in 2017 in preseason voting by the SoCon’s nine head coaches. The coaches also selected the preseason all-conference team, which features nine student-athletes due to a tie in the voting.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams or players in the balloting.
ETSU collected seven first-place votes and 63 points to claim the preseason honor. The next-closest vote-getter was UNCG, which finished with 50 points. Defending SoCon tournament champion Samford and Chattanooga tied for third with 46 points each, with Samford picking up the two remaining first-place votes. Wofford tallied 41 points to claim fifth and Furman received 32 points to take sixth. Mercer (22), Western Carolina (16) and The Citadel (eight) rounded out the field of nine.
Reigning SoCon Coach of the Year Lindsey Devine and the Bucs are coming off a 22-8 overall record in 2016 and a 13-3 record in the conference. Entering her 15th season at the helm of the program, Devine’s squad will be led by preseason all-conference team members AJ Lux and Rylee Milhorn as well as six other letterwinners. Lux, a junior, ranked second in the conference last season in hitting percentage (.332) while Milhorn ranked ninth in kills with 325 total. Milhorn, a senior, was named to the 2016 SoCon All-Tournament Team and picked up offensive player of the week honors on Aug. 29.
UNCG returns three starters plus its libero from last year’s 18-13 squad as the Spartans finished second in regular-season play with an 11-5 record in SoCon play. UNCG returns three all-conference team selections including Libero of the Year Christina Gregory as well as Ashley Muench and Alison Penner. All three Spartans were also named to the preseason all-conference team. Gregory, who earned three defensive player of the week selections and two defensive player of the month honors in 2016, led the conference in digs with 619. Muench finished with the second-most kills (471) last season in the league, while Penner led the conference by a wide margin with 1,172 assists.
Samford comes into the 2017 season after claiming the 2016 volleyball title on its home court, knocking off No. 1 seed ETSU in the semifinals and No. 3 seed Chattanooga in the finals to claim its third conference title. The Bulldogs finished with a 21-13 record after falling to No. 4-ranked Kansas in the NCAA tournament. The Mocs finished 2016 with a 19-13 record, including a 10-6 mark in SoCon play, and return five from last year’s squad.
Wofford, which came in at fifth in the preseason poll, returns to the court in 2017 with reigning SoCon Freshman of the Year Catie Cronister and All-SoCon first-team selection Colleen Reilly. Cronister led the league in 2016 with 45 service aces and ranked fifth with 407 kills, while Reilly ranked in the top 10 in conference matches in hitting percentage, blocks and kills.
Mercer’s Paige Alsten and The Citadel’s Moriah Smith round out the preseason all-conference team. Alsten, a junior, led the conference in blocks per set (1.27) and hitting percentage (.338) last season as the Bears finished with a 15-14 record. An All-SoCon second-team selection in 2016, Smith tallied the third-most kills in the conference last season with 469, ranked in the top-10 among conference members with 390 digs and posted a league-leading 18 double-doubles.
The 2017 regular season begins on Friday, Aug. 25, with all nine league teams in action. The 2017 SoCon Volleyball Championship will be hosted by Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C. The first-round and quarterfinal matches will be held on Nov. 17 between seeds 3-9, followed by the semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 18. The final will air live on ESPN3 on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m.
2017 Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. ETSU (7) 63
2. UNCG 50
T-3. Samford (2) 46
T-3. Chattanooga 46
5. Wofford 41
6. Furman 32
7. Mercer 22
8. Western Carolina 16
9. The Citadel 8
() denotes first-place votes
2017 Volleyball Preseason All-Conference Team
OH, Moriah Smith, The Citadel
RS, AJ Lux, ETSU
OH, Rylee Milhorn, ETSU
MB, Paige Alsten, Mercer
OH, Ashley Muench, UNCG
LIB, Christina Gregory, UNCG
S, Allison Penner, UNCG
OH, Catie Cronister, Wofford
MB, Colleen Reilly, Wofford